Work History

Staked just prior to 1922 as Polar Chief (3504), Rambler (18193), etc cl by A. Birnie, L. Belney and C. Burnside, who explored with a 12 m adit in 1923 and several trenches and shallow shafts until 1929.

Restaked as Combination Group (19036) by J. Stenbraten, who carried out trenching, built a trail in 1930-31, and then restaked the showing about 1935 as Stenbraten, etc cl (19190). He drove a 40 m adit in 1937, at which time the South Vein had been explored by pits and cuts for a length of 300 m.

Restaked as Zootie cl 1-4 (66609) in Sep/53 by O. Manzuth; as OD cl 1-6 (77884) in Aug/62 by J. Olynck; as MO cl 1-6 (85398) in Aug/63 by M. Smith; and as King cl 1-9 (91535) and Jackie cl 1-8 (91585) in Jan/65 by Yukon Antimony Corporation Ltd, which built a tote trail to the showing and carried out bulldozer trenching, geological mapping and geocehmical sampling in 1965; geochemical rock sampling and staked Joy cl 1-5 (Y10753) in Sep/66; and I.P. surveying in 1967.

Restaked as WH cl 1-8 (Y75547) in Jun/73 by W. Kuhn and optioned briefly to El Paso Mining and Milling Company Ltd, which carried out geological mapping and geochemical rock and soil sampling in 1974.

The claims were subsequently optioned by Con-Am Resources Ltd, which carried out geological mapping and geochemical rock sampling in 1976 and EM surveying and rebuilt the access road in 1977 before dropping the option in 1979.

In 1980 the claims were transferred to E. Bergvinson who resampled the old trenches in 1981 and briefly optioned the property to Westam Minerals Inc in 1983. The claims were transferred to Omni Resources Inc in 1984, which staked Ern cl 1-33 (YA81543) in Apr/84 and Tex cl 1-22 (YA92833) in Jul/85 to surround the original WH claims and consolidated other contiguous claims under various option agreements. During the period from 1985 to 1987, Omni carried out geological mapping, propsecting, geochemical soil sampling, resistivity surveying, bulldozer trenching, 18 231 m of percussion and diamond drilling and 869 m of underground development.

In Mar/88, Skukum Ventures Inc entered a joint venture with Omni and contracted to put the property into production by the end of 1990. Skukum Ventures Inc changed its name to Skukum Gold Inc later that year and explored with 6 000 m of surface and underground diamond drilling, underground drifting on the Rainbow and Kuhn Zones and collared a new adit at the 1 350 m level. At the end of 1988, total underground workings included two main haulage tunnels, several drifts, ore passes and stopes, raises to the 1375 and 1400 levels and a decline to the 1275 and 1250 levels.

Attempts to put the property into production using first the Venus mill, then the Mt Skukum mill under lease agreements with United Keno Hill Mines Ltd and Mt Skukum Gold Mining Corporation were unsuccessful due to a variety of regulatory, legal and financial difficulties, and 100% ownership reverted to Omni in Apr/91.

Wheaton River Minerals Ltd optioned the property in Sep/91 and carried out metallurgical and bioleach testing in 1993. Omni reopened the mine workings in Jun/96 and completed a 94.6 m drill drift from which they subsequently drilled 14 holes (1 647 m). In 1998 the company carried out geological mapping, contour and grid soil sampling, HLEM surveying and surface drilling of 5 holes (1 322 m).

In Nov/2000 Omni amalgamated with Trumpeter Yukon Gold Inc to form Tagish Lake Gold Corporation. Tagish Lake carried out prospecting, geological mapping and geochemical rock sampling in 2001; a detailed structural and alteration studies, drilled fifteen holes (2 502.52 m) from underground and commissioned a National Instrument 43-101 compliant resource estimate of the deposit in 2002.

Between 2003 and 2007 Tagish Lake carried out an extensive underground drifting, surface and underground diamond drilling and data compilation program at the Skukum Creek mine site. The company carried out enviromental assessments and licensing procedures, and a positive preliminary feasibility report by Laxey Mining Services Inc. was completed in 2004. The preliminary feasibility was updated by Laxey Mining Services in 2005. In Aug/2007 the company released a new National Instrument 43-101 compliant resource estimate for the four main ore zones (MineTech, Aug 2007).

A Technical Report by R.G. Simpson and C.O. Nash stating a resource estimate was filed on September 14, 2012 with an effective date of July 16, 2012 and was re-stated in a report by R.G Simpson with a revision date of July 31, 2013. The resource estimate was unchanged.

Capsule Geology

The Skukum Creek deposit is a polymetallic vein deposit containing structurally controlled mineralization within northeast trending faults and shear zones associated with the Berney Creek fault system. The deposit is hosted by aphanitic, siliceous dike rocks within fault structures in mid-Cretaceous aged, medium to coarse grained, euhedral hornblende granodiorite (Hart, 1991). Initial drill-indicated reserves (1988) were estimated at 405 644 tonnes grading 6.7 g/t Au and 365.1g/t Ag for the Rainbow zone and 338 872 tonnes grading 8.9 g/t Au and 169.7 g/t Ag for the Kuhn zone.

The mineralized veins consist of quartz or quartz-rhyolite breccia containing 20-40% sulphides, which include pyrite, arsenopyrite, sphalerite, galena, minor chalcopyrite, pyrargyrite, pyrrhotite and bornite, and traces of argentite, tetrahedrite, gold and electrum. The veins cut aphanitic rhyolite dikes which intrude propylitically altered mid-Cretaceous granodiorite of the Mt. McNeil pluton. The ore zones range from 1 to 22 m wide. Gouge and granodiorite or rhyolite breccia occur in both the hanging wall and footwall of the veins. Hart (1992) recognized three phases of veining, and associated the mineralization with the third phase. Carbon dioxide rich fluid inclusions indicate a probable formation temperature of about 350° C, typical of a mesothermal environment.

The Kuhn zone (the southermost of the occurrence locations) is 444 m long and has a vertical extent of 385 m. It narrows to the southwest as the fault splay changes direction and merges with the Berney Creek Fault. The Rainbow zone (easterly occurrence location) is 660 m long and has a vertical extent of 618 m, with an average width of 1.2 m. Both zones have similar mineralogy but the Kuhn zone has less galena, more arsenopyrite and a higher Au:Ag ratio. In the Rainbow zone, the highest gold grades occur in sulphide-rich zones typically greater than 2 m wide, with 4-12% combined Zn-Pb and 4-10% As. Test mining at the Rainbow Zone removed 3 200 tonnes of mineralization with 10% dilution and a grade 18% higher than indicated by diamond drilling. Metallurgical tests by Wheaton River Minerals achieved gold recoveries of about 92% and silver recoveries of about 94.5%. Drifting in 1988 located a high grade ore shoot on the 1 350 m level that averaged 29.3 g/t Au and 197.8 g/t Ag over a 36.6 m strike length.

The Kuhn and Rainbow zones are linked at their northeast and southwest ends, respectively, by a north trending, steeply east dipping zone of dikes, shear zones and local quartz-sulphide veins of similar character to the linked zones. The Sterling zone as it is called has an approximate strike length of 180 m and as suggested by surface mapping and drill intersections, appears continuous with and joined to the other zones in a single complex of dikes, veins and shear zones.

Other mineralized zones in the Skukum Creek area include the potential strike extensions of the Rainbow and Kuhn zones; the Ridge and Rainbow East zones and sheeted quartz-sulphide extension veins in the Taxi zone, 50 to 200 m west and southwest of the Sterling zone. The Ridge zone comprises a mineralized portion of the Kuhn fault system approximately 450 m wouthwest of the Skukum Creek underground workings. Drilling to date indicates a mineralized zone, approximately 50 m along strike and 300 m down dip, which is open at depth and along strike below an elevation of 1 600 m. The Rainbow East zone has been intersected in several drill holes on the northeast side of Skukum Creek, along the possible northeast extension of the Rainbow zone. Both zones are structurally, mineralogically and texturally similar to the Rainbow and Kuhn zones.

The Taxi zone was extensively sampled in 2001 with 28 of 47 samples collected returning greater than 1 g/t Au. Previously thought to comprise discrete zones, the Taxi zone is actually a broad zone of multiple, parallel but discontinuous veins hosted in a north-northeast trending joint set of the host granodiorite intrusive. Two parallel vein structures, 30 m apart, have been traced in outcrop along strike for 70 m and in float for a minimum of 220 m. The best chip samples from the more westerly of the two main veins, returned 5.73 g/t Au and 196.9 g/t Ag over 15 cm from the central section of the vein and 28.74 g/t Au and 2 997.7 g/t Ag over 5 cm from a section near the northern end of the vein.
In 2002, drilling of thirteen of the fifteen holes was focused on the Rainbow zone and confirmed that the higher precious metal grades in this zone are associated with quartz-sulfide veins within carbonate altered shear zones. Of the other two holes, one flat hole was drilled to intersect both the Sterling and Kuhn zones and revealed that shearing of the granite increased with depth in the Sterling zone, while the other drilled 90 m below the deepest historic drilling in the Kuhn zone intersected the shear zone at an elevation of approximately 1 150 m.

In Sep/2002, Tagish Lake Gold Corp using a cut-off grade of 5 g/t of equivalent gold, calculated an undiluted Measured plus Indicated Resource for the various zones on the property, of 800 000 tonnes grading 6.77 g/t Au and 214 g/t Ag. The company identified an additional 90 000 tonnes of Inferred Resources averaging 6.53 g/t Au and 225 g/t Ag.

In Aug/2007 Tagish Lake released an updateded mineral resource for the 4 main ore zones located on the Skukum Creek property. Using a 4 g/t gold equivalent cut-off, Measured Resources equal 195 000 tonnes grading 5.8 g/t gold and 240 g/t silver and Indicated Resources equal 880 000 tonnes grading 6.5 g/t gold and 174 g/t silver. Inferred Resources stand at 206 000 tonnes grading 6.8 g/t gold and 155 g/t silver.

Extension of the underground workings on the Rainbow Two and Berg zones at Skukum Creek were the focus of the drill program in 2007.

See Minfile 105D 025 for data on Goddell deposit and 105D 158 for Mount Skukum deposit.

2007-2014 not fully updated yet.

A Technical Report by R.G. Simpson and C.O. Nash stating a resource estimate was filed on September 14, 2012 with an effective date of July 16,2012. A revised document of that report was released with a revision date of July 31, 2013. The revision was made to address comments by the British Columbia Securities Commission, include change in authorship but no material change and the resource estimate was unchanged. The current resource estimate for the Skukum Creek deposit, using a 3 g/t gold or 3 g/t gold-equivalent cut-off, is listed at 1,086,800 tonnes of INDICATED material grading 5.54g/t Au and 159g/t Ag (or 8.75g/t AuEq) for a total of 193,700 oz Au (6.02M g Au), 5.5M oz Ag (172.M g Ag) or 304,600 oz AuEq (9.47M g AuEq); and 586,000 tonnes of INFERRED material grading 4.74g/t Au and 105g/t Ag (or 6.83g/t AuEq) for a total of 89,200oz Au (2.77M g Au) and 1,972,700 oz Ag (61.33M g Ag) or 128,700oz AuEq (4M g AuEq). This estimate includes results from the Rainbow 2, Berg, Kuhn and Rainbow zones and incorporates results of the 2011 drilling program.

 References

WHEATON RIVER MINERALS LTD, Oct/93. Assessment Report #093136 by L.A. Melis and A.B. Cron.